


Don’t you wanna feel my skin? On your skin?

by AceEmerson



Category: Detroit: Become Human (Video Game)
Genre: M/M, Massages, Pre-Relationship, RK900 is Nines
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-03-20
Updated: 2020-03-20
Packaged: 2021-03-01 00:55:08
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,823
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23236558
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/AceEmerson/pseuds/AceEmerson
Summary: Gavin is stressed and tense after days of working on a strenuous case. Nines is there to help him relax.
Relationships: Upgraded Connor | RK900/Gavin Reed
Comments: 4
Kudos: 117





	Don’t you wanna feel my skin? On your skin?

**Author's Note:**

> I love these boys always
> 
> Title taken from the song "Bones" by The Killers

This case was dragging on. Even being a state of the art android, the most advanced model Cyberlife ever created, doesn't mean anything if you don't have enough evidence. Nines was learning that the hard way. Night after night he and Detective Reed have been running between stakeouts and crime scenes, chasing dead end leads, and wasting moonlight pouring over case files in the artificial light of the precinct. 

Nines was built for resilience and unwavering determination. Reed claims he was built for coffee and cigarettes. So it’s no surprise that by the time Nines starts to feel worn down from a lack of system patches, upgrades, and adjustments due to his neglect of entering standby, Gavin is worn thread-bare. 

It’s exactly 01:00:00 when Nines receives another red warning message telling him that he’s vastly overdue for a standby cycle. He dismisses the warning, knowing it’s something he’ll have to address eventually, but knowing that he has more pressing matters to attend to right now. Like the evidence piled on his desk that he needs to re-analyze. Or his partner’s empty coffee cup. He gets up silently, hand reaching out to grab the mug easily and heading straight to the break room. Placing the mug under the spout for the coffee machine, he stares at the porcelain: a simple white cup with black letters reading “F$*#K OFF”. If Nines were human, he thinks he would smile at that. It’s so Gavin.

He carries the full cup of coffee back through the maze of desks in the center of the bullpen, making his way to his partner. He places the cup at the elbow of the worn-out detective, taking a moment to analyze Gavin’s health. His stress levels are high and rising, his fatigue is mounting, and there’s tension in just about every major muscle group in the human’s body. Nines knows that stress tends to make human’s sloppy. They overthink things or rush through them or just collapse under the pressure. Maybe it would be best to help Detective Reed de-stress so they can increase their efficiency.

It takes Nines less than a second of research and determination to choose the best approach to relieving his partner’s stress. Rest is not an option right now with how much work is still on the metaphorical and physical table, Gavin would laugh in his face at the suggestion of yoga and meditation, and they don’t exactly have time for Reed to go out and find himself a lay. So this is really the optimal course of action.

He steps behind Gavin’s desk chair, the human to engrossed in the endless files on his desk to notice, and doesn’t hesitate before lifting his hands and bringing them to rest on Gavin’s shoulders. The response is immediate: Gavin nearly jumps out of his seat and whirls around to glare up at his partner with a mix of irritation and bewilderment.

“What the fuck are you doing, tin can?” he snaps accusingly, and Nines just looks at him with a calm even expression.

“I was going to give you a massage, detective. Your stress levels are very high and only mounting, leading to a decrease in your efficiency and work quality,” the android explains slowly, as if explaining the situation to a toddler.

Gavin gives him a look that’s wary and suspicious, but eventually he relents and turns back around.

“Just…. Give me some fucking warning next time, asshole,” Gavin responds, but theres no bite or any real malice to the words or the insult, and Nines takes that as permission to resume his plan.

His hands move back to Gavin’s shoulders, and he increases the surface temperature there, giving a bit of warmth to his touch. He’s tentative at first, giving his partner a chance to pull away and change his mind, but when Gavin just relaxes a bit, he continues on with greater purpose. His hands and fingers follow the paths of muscle under the man’s skin, and he looks for points of tension and knots, giving light pressure to try to soothe the stress built up in every fiber of Gavin’s being. It’s nice to touch the man. They barely get any contact despite being partners. Gavin seems to be the kind of person that keeps most others at arm's length. Nines is steady and works with purpose, enjoying the sensation of touch even as he tries to focus on getting Gavin to relax, but the man under his touch doesn’t seem to relax any more than when he first started. Nines pauses his movements, processing that information.

“Is this not adequate for you?” he asks, voice flat and steady as he refuses to remove his hands from Gavin’s shoulders until he’s inevitably shrugged off.

“I’m just thinking how funny it is that I’ve seen you snap people’s necks, rip android’s limbs off, and punch straight through metal with those hands,” Gavin responds, in a voice that doesn’t indicate any humor despite his words, “and yet when you give someone a massage, you’re as weak as a fuckin’ toddler.”

Nines feels some of his features twitch in an approximation of a frown. He was trying to be soothing and relaxing, he wasn’t trying to be rough. He can be rough if he wants to be, and Gavin sure as hell knows that. He probably should be nice and just increase the pressure a little bit, or ask what Gavin prefers, but in all honesty, he feels like being an asshole. So instead of being gradual or helpful, he retracts the artificial skin from his hands, finds two muscles in the human’s shoulders, and digs his thumbs into them. Hard. 

He’s expecting a yelp, a curse, something thrown at him, an insult. He’s expecting Gavin to be an asshole right back, so that Nines can tell him he’s being a wimp while the human grumbles that stupidly cute grumpy grumble of his. What he’s not expecting is a moan. And yet, that’s exactly what comes out of Gavin’s lips. The guy leans back slightly into the firm, intense touch of Nines’ thumbs and lets out a shaky breath.

“Yeah, fuck, like that,” he breathes out through gritted teeth, and it takes Nines a moment to process the fact that the intensity and pain seem to be exactly what the human was looking for.

So he keeps up that intense pressure and moves his thumbs in small circles, not letting up even when Gavin makes a pained noise and winces. Nines resumes his pace and movement from before, except this time he digs in deep to the tense and tight muscles that he can reach. The harder he goes, the more Gavin’s body relaxes, even as he bites his lip, squeezes his eyes shut, and breathes roughly. Nines finds that working the tight muscles roughly makes them loosen up faster, working out knots a lot more efficiently now that he knows not to hold back. He likes it better like this, too. This way he doesn’t have that layer of skin between him and his partner. It’s just his hard chassis against the soft give of Gavin’s skin.

“Ah,” Gavin bites out with a gasp when Nines pushes in to an exceptionally tight knot in the man’s upper back, “god, that fucking  _ hurts _ .”

“And yet you seem to be enjoying yourself, detective,” Nines replies, a ghost of a smile playing at the corners of his lips.

Gavin makes a disgruntled noise in response to the statement, but he doesn’t deny it, which Nines considers a win. His contentment must be obvious however, because before long Gavin is commenting on it.

“Speak for yourself, tin can,” he mumbles, tilting his head back to look up at his partner with a quirked eyebrow, “looks like you like this too.”

Nines doesn’t bother denying the statement, knowing that Gavin doesn’t need to be an android to read a lie.

“Well, I enjoy touching you,” he responds simply, truthfully, and Gavin gets a confused crease in his forehead like he doesn’t understand why anyone would enjoy touching him.

Nines hates that look, hates seeing yet more evidence of how little Gavin thinks of himself, LED cycling yellow temporarily. People fail to realize that all the dirty glances they send Gavins way, all the unsavory gossip about the man, all the comments and whispers behind his back, all of it, Gavin’s seen before from himself. No one can really hurl any insult at the guy that he hasn’t already thrown at himself. Nines wishes he could detail all the reasons Gavin is his favorite human being that he’s come into contact with, maybe send him a whole file of data he’s compiled over the time he’s known him, without the guy shutting him out and building his walls higher. 

“The feeling of your skin against my chassis is…” he pauses briefly, scanning through his internal dictionary for the right word to convey his feelings while also not scaring the human off, “pleasant.”

Gavin just looks at him for a minute, expression one of confusion mixed with hesitance. NInes thinks he looks good from his angle, wishes he could be closer.

“You’re weird,” is all Gavin responds, but there’s no real malice or insult behind it.

“Look who’s talking,” Nines responds without missing a beat, and the detective’s strange expression turns back into a smile as he lets Nines return to his massage.

It doesn’t take long for the android to work out the worst of the knots left in the human’s shoulders and upper back. From there, instead of retreating, he continues the movement of his hands, softer this time. It’s a mirror of how he started, soft soothing touches, not digging in but rather just trying to relax the body under his hands. Gavin doesn’t protest this time, just relaxes even further, eyes falling shut as Nines finds a good gentle rhythm.

Nines isn’t surprised to hear Gavin’s heartbeat slow slightly, nor is it unexpected that his breathing evens out. The guy is exhausted and his cup of caffeine sits forgotten and untouched on his desk. For optimal efficiency, Nines should wake his partner up and get them back to work. Except… Gavin looks so calm and peaceful in sleep, and Nines can’t bring himself to disrupt the man. So instead of doing so, he pulls his hands gently off of Gavin’s skin with only slight hesitation and reactivates the artificial skin of his hands. He shrugs out of his jacket, and situates it around Gavin’s shoulders, careful not to wake up the sleeping man.

He takes a moment just to look at his partner, admire the sight of Gavin fast asleep in his desk chair, crisp white cyberlife jacket pulled around him. A small almost-smile ghosts his face, and then he heads back to his desk, feeling refreshed and relaxed for the first time in too long.


End file.
